'Have the goodness to leave me,' I said. 'You bore me intensely.'
'I tell you that you are an insolent fellow, and I shall do as I
please.'
'Are you a beggar, that you are so importunate? What do you want?'
'Do you remember saying in Forli that you would fight me when the
opportunity presented itself. It has! And I am ready, for I have to
thank you for my banishment from Castello.'
'When I offered to fight you, sir, I thought you were a gentleman. Now
that I know your condition, I must decline.'
'You coward!'
'Surely it is not cowardice to refuse a duel with a person like
yourself?'
By this time he was wild with rage; but I was cool and collected.
'Have you so much to boast?' he asked furiously.
'Happily I am not a bastard!'
'Cuckold!'
'Oh!'
I sprang up and looked at him with a look of horror. He laughed
scornfully and repeated,--
'Cuckold!'
Now it was my turn. The blood rushed to my head and a terrible rage
seized me. I picked up the tankard of wine which was on the table and
flung it at him with all my might. The wine splashed over his face, and
the cup hit him on the forehead and cut him so that the blood trickled
down. In a moment he had drawn his sword, and at the same time I
wrenched mine from its sheath.
He could fight well.
He could fight well, but against me he was lost. All the rage and agony
of the last day gathered themselves together. I was lifted up and cried
aloud in the joy of having someone on whom to wreak my vengeance. I felt
as if I had against me the whole world and were pouring out my hate at
the end of my sword. My fury lent me the strength of a devil. I drove
him back, I drove him back, and I fought as I had never fought before.
In a minute I had beaten the sword from his hand, and it fell to the
floor as if his wrist were broken, clattering down among the cups. He
staggered back against the wall, and stood there with his head thrown
back and his arms helplessly outspread.
'Ah, God, I thank thee!' I cried exultingly. 'Now I am happy.'
I lifted my sword above my head to cleave his skull, my arm was in the
swing--when I stopped. I saw the staring eyes, the white face blanched
with terror; he was standing against the wall as he had fallen,
shrinking away in his mortal anxiety. I stopped; I could not kill him.